Oh look what they didn’t do: test any of their prognostications in any meaningful way.

You know those studies that confirm and quantify hiring biases by sending out identical resumes with names of different ethnic origin, or addresses in different neighbourhoods? Yeah, that’s exactly what “typography wonks” don’t do, this time and every other time they’re asked for advice.

I’d be interested to know how much it effects your chances, but I can’t imagine you’d argue that it would have no effect?

And that’s not to say that a ‘better’ font would improve your chances (this is important), but the resume reviewer will have their own tastes and biases, even if subconscious. They’re not a robot (unless they are).

Type choice, haircut, your height, the weather outside - it all makes a difference. If there’s a font that causes issues, or a font that outshines, I’d definitely like to know about it. But I imagine the standard rules apply, keep it clean, readable and avoid too much personality. And that’s exactly why a font like Helvetica could work well (but likely no better than arial or calibri). Times New Roman is likely to look very ‘default’, bland, it might look like no effort has been made - again, we’re talking subconsciously here - and anything with too much jazz will just look silly.

Everything matters, it’s just a case of how much.

I saw this reported on yesterday and the comments on that post were hilarious. Some people just don’t seem to realise that humans are full of subconscious biases - wailing, “What difference does it make??”, well, none, logically, but again, we’re not robots. You could equally ask what difference race makes… but well, yea (although that’s probably more toward the conscious end of the scale).

Edited to add: My pick would probably be Open Sans. Professional and subtly different from the rest of the sans crowd. I’d just have to hope that my resume reviewer wasn’t really into serifs

Rail Alphabet is a typeface designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert for British Railways. First used by them at London Liverpool Street Station, it was then adopted by the Design Research Unit (DRU) as part of their comprehensive 1965 rebranding of the company. Rail Alphabet is similar, but not identical, to a bold weight of Helvetica. It is not quite as similar to Akzidenz Grotesk or Arial. Akzidenz Grotesk had earlier also provided the same designers the broad inspiration for the Transpor...

I saw this reported on yesterday and the comments on that post were hilarious. Some people just don’t seem to realise that humans are full of subconscious biases - wailing, “What difference does it make??”, well, none, logically, but again, we’re not robots.

I tend to define robotic behavior as precisely that which is subject to subconscious biases. Choosing people upon criteria which were not relevant to the tasks at hand would be failure.

I submit all physical resumes in raised ink Papyrus font, on papyrus, rolled like a scroll and sealed in wax made from the tears of whales.

For online resumes, depending on the employer it is either a 30 minute long, gig and a half animated gif (which I also remind them it has a hard G, not a J sound); or alternatively I pack my resume so only real engineers can read it.